According to the Wall Street Journal, McDonald’s Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul. However, less than an hour after that release, ABC News  and Reuters reported that McDonald’s and the Obama administration… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Advanced Accounting
The Fabulous Fab is Back in the News
Fabrice Tourre, a controversial personality in the Goldman Sachs Group Inc transaction of 2007, asked a judge to throw out a U.S. regulator’s fraud lawsuit against him. About two and a half months ago, the bank settled its part of the case for $550 million. In his filing, Tourre asked that the U.S. Securities and… Read more »
No MBA for Insider Trading
In a recent ruling, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan held that a certified public accountant who hid his conviction for insider trading from his teachers at NYUs Stern School of Business wasn’t entitled to the MBA degree that he thought he earned. The former PricewaterhouseCoopers employee, Ayal Rosenthal, pleaded guilty in February 2007 to one… Read more »
Losing a Trademark Battle
Danish toy brick maker Lego Juris A/S has failed in its bid to overturn a European trade mark decision canceling European trade mark protection for its standard 2 by 4 red Lego brick in a September 14 ruling of the European Court of Justice. Lego went to court after a Canadian firm had made blocks… Read more »
A New Type of Insurance
WedLock is a new type of casualty insurance that gives the unhappily married policyholder a payout after he or she is divorced. It costs about $16 a month for every $1,250 of coverage. John Logan, founder of the company, figured there must be a market for those who want to hedge their marital bets. But… Read more »
What a Tale!
During the boom, Wachovia banker Robert Verrone made money by slicing and dicing billions of dollars in commercial real estate loans. After the crash, he made money by restructuring those loans before they blew up. As Wachovia’s No. 1 underwriter of securitized commercial real estate debt between 2002 and 2007, Verrone resigned just months before… Read more »
Star Power Fraud
Kenneth Starr, a celebrity financial adviser to stars including actors Wesley Snipes and Sly Stallone, was charged with carrying out a massive $30 million fraud on his clients and then spending the money on a luxury apartment and jewelry, federal prosecutors said. Starr, head of the Manhattan-based Starr and Co., was charged with wire fraud,… Read more »
Church Robbed of $600,000 Online
Over one weekend in August 2010, the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, fell victim to a $600,000 ACH fraud theft, thus, becoming another in the growing list of businesses and entities that have suffered huge losses as a result of these frauds. Questions: 1. Based on the article, what do you calculate as the… Read more »
Can Debt Ruin Your Relationship?
When Allison Brooke Eastman’s fiancé found out four months ago just how high her student loan debt was, he broke off their engagement within three days. Although she had told him early in their relationship that she had over $100,000 of debt, when she found that the amount was actually about $170,000, he accused her… Read more »
Bollywood on a Budget
The world’s movie capital is not Hollywood but Bollywood. Bollywood is the nickname for the Indian film industry located in Bombay. Fourteen million Indians go to the movies on a daily basis (about 1.4% of the population of 1 billion) and pay the equivalent to the average Indian’s day’s wages (US $1-3) to see any… Read more »